Micro ATX mini tower disadvantages

[Lurcher]

I'm gradually putting together a gaming pc and i'm really tempted by a mini tower case, e.g the Corsair Carbide 88R. I've never used anything besides standard mid size cases before so I'd like to clarify some things first. I know larger cases have the advantage in terms of airflow and ease of building/access, but just how severe is it? If it's a matter of maybe a few degrees I think I can live with it, but if it seriously hampers performance I will sacrifice aesthetics and slightly better portability. I'm also wondering about physical fit. Are there any common graphics cards, PSUs, coolers etc that won't fit? It would be amazing if somebody has used the same system in both mini and mid towers and can compare figures, bbut if anyone has built a mini tower please relay any experience that might help, did you have to modify anything? Things I haven't considered etc. Thanks for reading.

 

 

specs so far:

Motherboard: Gigabyte H110M-S2H Micro ATX

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 (perhaps minor overclock later)

Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 

Graphics card: MSI Geforce GTX 750ti 2gb (plan to upgrade to higher end later)

RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 8gb (2x4, again plan to upgrade, mobo supports 32gb)

I can't see myself ever needing more than 1xSSD and 1x HDD

 

I will be playing games like GTA V on a 1920x1080 monitor, which I won't be upgrading any time soon.

[Searbug]

You can use pretty much any card up to 380mm in length, and most CPU coolers, 150mm height, cooling should be fine,im using a fan GPU right up close to a perplex panel, its heating the panel up but the gpu still gets max 60C on Overclock, pretty much and standard psu should fit so yeah, go for it, nothing bad would happen, BUT. Your Hyper 212 Evo won't fit as its 159mm high and the case allows only up to 150mm, so either get a wider case or get a new CPU cooler, IMO I would get a Cryorig M9i or Arctic Freezer i32

[Monkey Dust]

Most MATX cases aren't any harder to work in the ATX, and aren't much smaller as MATX motherboards are the same width and only 3 PCI slots shorter than ATX MBs. As with all cases you will have to check clearances for things like oversized graphics cards (cards that are a lot taller than the PCI slot can problematic), or long PSUs.

 

The most compact MATX cases are more difficult to build in, but that doesn't sound like the kind of case you'll be looking at.